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Kenyan Tekken star Sylvia “QueenArrow” Gathoni
© Red Bull Kenya
esports
Red Bull Hit the Streets: QueenArrow is coming to South Africa
Kenyan Tekken star Sylvia “QueenArrow” Gathoni has become somewhat of an ambassador for wannabe pro gamers in Africa. Now she is coming to show her stuff at Red Bull Hit the Streets in South Africa
Written by Sam Wright
4 min readPublished on
In 2019 QueenArrow began to be noticed in the Tekken fighting games scene in Nairobi, Kenya - competing in events regularly. While she might not have always been in the top spot, her consistent drive to improve and passion for gaming as a whole turned heads. Now, she will be flying to South Africa to compete in Red Bull Hit the Streets, in the hope of making it into the top qualifiers to compete in the Grand Finals and a chance to attend Red Bull Kumite.
QueenArrow shared her career start and how she planned to use her law degree to improve gaming in Africa with Red Bull in 2020.
She chatted to us after announcing her trip to South Africa to share a bit more about her competitive Tekken career and her expectations around the growing fighting games competition.
You’ll be flying to South Africa to compete in Red Bull Hit the Streets and try qualify for the Grand Finals. How did this come about?
I was honestly taken by surprise by all of this in all honesty. When the Kenyan Red Bull office contacted me and told me I’d be going, I was over the moon! This is my first major in South Africa and I am ecstatic!
Have you had a chance to see some of South Africa’s Tekken players in action?
I’ve had chances to interact with Iggy, Callym, KingLing, Dax and Unifire. I’m honestly nervous about facing them all since I know they are the strongest players there. Iggy has a really strong Heihachi and Dragunov (and a few other pocket characters, so I’m very unsure about what to expect). Callym has a super strong backdash and his Eddy is annoying. Dax’s Jin is strong and I know I’m in for a challenge since Jin is a problematic matchup for me. I’ve played with Unifire in ranked and he’s quite knowledgeable about the game so I know I’ll have to work on my overall adaptation to win. KingLing is a great player as well and also plays Xiaoyu so I need to work on my mirror matchup knowledge.
Sylvia “QueenArrow” Gathoni
Sylvia “QueenArrow” Gathoni© Red Bull Kenya
You’ve definitely done your research! What other sort of preparation have you done leading up to the competition?
I’ve been training with members of my community who have the experience playing with the South African community. We’ve been working on the problematic match-ups and game situations. I feel better prepared about what to expect when Hit the Streets starts.
You shared your story with Red Bull around this time last year. What has happened with your professional Tekken career since then?
Oooh buddy! I have a doozy for you! My career has grown in leaps and bounds. I have become better at Tekken and I'm loving the improvement thus far. Still a long way to go, regardless. I have also been featured on CNN, France24, the DW and Asahi Shimbun. I’ve got shoutouts from the big man Harada and Michael Murray and I’ve become more acknowledged in the fighting games community and gaming community as a whole.
Sylvia “QueenArrow” Gathoni
Sylvia “QueenArrow” Gathoni© Red Bull Kenya
The legend himself, Ryan Hart, will be commentating the Hit the Streets Finals. Are you excited to have him shoutcast your games?
I’ve been watching Ryan Hart since my college days, when he commentated on the Tekken World Tour, and I’m stoked to learn from him as well if we get the chance to pick his brain. I’d love him to say that I am one of the players with the most potential. My goal is to be one of the greats from the African region and I’ll do my best to serve the damn sauce.
How important is a competition like Hit the Streets for the African Tekken scene?
It is important because our scene needs a lot of attention. We’ve seen the Pakistani scene grow as a result of the hard work Arslan Ash put in EVO and the other competitions he attended. I feel if we had more eyes on the continent, we’d discover more players with the potential to show the world what we can actually do and it’d build up to more international majors being held here.
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Red Bull Hit The Streets

FIGHTERS ASSEMBLE: Red Bull Hit the Streets is back to find SA’s best players!

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